Fired Camden Housing Authority manager pleads guilty in $150,000 fraud case

A fired manager at the Camden Housing Authority has pleaded guilty to directing more than $150,000 intended to help low-income tenants to a company she controlled and to a family member, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced Friday.

Traci Willis, 55, of Mount Laurel, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Superior Court in Camden to one count of third-degree conspiracy to tamper with public records and entered into a consent decree that includes a recommended sentence of probation conditioned on her serving up to 364 days in Camden County jail and a lifetime ban on public office, Platkin said.

“A job in public service is not an opportunity to inappropriately cash in. This defendant used her control of taxpayer funds to dispense public dollars for the benefit of herself, her company, and a family member,” Platkin said in a statement.

Willis was director of the Camden Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program from 2000 to 2019. In that role, she approved distribution of Section 8 funds to city landlords and property management companies.

Investigators found she had directed tens of thousands of dollars in public funds to a relative who was a Camden landlord, and to a company she founded in 2015 and later shared with that relative.

The housing authority learned about her activities in 2019 and fired her, Platkin said.

Willis tried to challenge her termination and created bogus paperwork to make it appear that she had transferred her ownership stake in her company to an employee, Platkin said.

Investigators determined she was still the owner of the company from 2016 to 2020 while the company was receiving housing funds that went into bank accounts she controlled, Platkin said.